Think Inc. September 18, 2011

The Think Inc 2011 event has now a new website with less graphics and more info. This year's line-up includes Neil deGrasse Tyson, Christopher Hitchens (via video link), Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Michael Shermer..

Visit http://thinkinc.org.au/ for latest news, list of speakers, location, schedule, to register and more.

http://www.facebook.com/ThinkIncConference

http://twitter.com/#!/thinkinc2011

Dear Angry Lunatic: A Response to Chris Hedges

via samharris.org

"Over at Truthdig, the celebrated journalist Chris Hedges has discovered that Christopher Hitchens and I are actually racists with a fondness for genocide. He has broken this story before—many times, in fact—but in his most recent essay he blames “secular fundamentalists” like me and Hitch for the recent terrorist atrocities in Norway."

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/response-to-chris-hedges/

A Ridiculous Rapid Response

Why did so many "experts" declare the Oslo attacks to be the work of Islamic terrorists?
By Christopher Hitchens


"Having had 16 years to reflect since Oklahoma City, we should really have become a little more refined in our rapid-response diagnoses of anti-civilian mass murder. Rather than make it more difficult, the number of contrasting features in the most recent case of Norway actually makes this task fractionally easier. The fruit bat and troll population of the recent scenery of catastrophe, enriched with Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell characters, permits a wider view of the various fields of fire and a greater variety of arguable motives for analysis."

Read More (Slate)

What Will Rupert Think?

The British political class may stop asking the one question that has obsessed it for decades.
By Christopher Hitchens

"It was about two decades ago, but I can still remember how long it took and how much atmosphere it sucked out of the room. In a sort of dress rehearsal for more recent events, a pair of Guardian reporters had produced a book about the inner workings of the lurid Murdoch tabloid style, and of its targets and beneficiaries."

Read More (Slate)

Scandal Sheets

In Britain, the Guardian takes on Rupert Murdoch's cynical view of what newspaper readers want to read.
By Christopher Hitchens

"On a beautiful Sunday morning at Brideshead Castle, Sebastian Flyte breaks off a desultory conversation about religion and morality because he wants to immerse himself in the scandal sheets: "He turned back to the pages of the News of the World and said, 'Another naughty scout-master … oh, don't be a bore, Charles, I want to read about a woman in Hull who's been using an instrument … thirty-eight other cases were taken into consideration in sentencing her to six months—golly!"

Read More (Slate)

Photos by Brooks Kraft

Set of pictures taken earlier this year by photographer Brooks Kraft.

http://brookskraft.photoshelter.com/gallery/Christopher-Hitchens/G0000066he0LB6TQ

Boat People

Some questions for the "activists" aboard the Gaza flotilla.
By Christopher Hitchens

"The tale of the Gaza "flotilla" seems set to become a regular summer feature, bobbing along happily on the inside pages with an occasional update. A nice sidebar for reporters covering the Greek debt crisis: a built-in mild tension of "will they, won't they?"; a cast of not very colorful characters but one we almost begin to feel we know personally. Such cheery and breezy slogans—"The Audacity of Hope" and "Free Gaza"—and such an easy storyline that it practically writes itself."

Read More (Slate)